Boksburg se gat

 Was reading one of my previous rants where I went on about "Footbawler's" histrionics.  The other night Pete's daughter Kim came out with the perfect definition.  In football, players spent most of the time pretending they are hurt whereas in rugby they spent most of the time pretending they aren't!

Returning from Mokala, I decided to see how the Beast was faring so booked into Hlalanathi for three nights.  Spent most of the time clearing cobwebs and generally making the lady presentable, then promptly put her back in storage!  Did have the odd moment to indulge in things like a bit of a stroll and found these zinnias near the first tee on the golf course.  Almost as good as the west coast.

Found this red-knobbed coot on one of the water hazards........

.........and a small flock of black-throated canaries enjoying breakfast.  Then it was back to Boks.

When going through my bird photographs, I noticed that there were some really common things missing - hence a return trip to Marievale was necessary.  This fellow took a break from his spooning for long enough to get a decent shot and if the water had been a fraction calmer there would have been two of him.  Have to confess that I have no idea if it is a him or a her, so am probably being sexist.

If this isn't dead common etc!  Though named Egyptian goose, it's actually a member of the wood-duck family.  However it was large enough to be mistaken for a goose, though if you think of a farmyard goose there is no real similarity or am I being pedantic?

A reed cormorant drying it's wings - another fallacy they are perfectly capable of flying with wet wings.  It's more likely using the sun to warm it's tum which is actually an aid to digesting cold fish......

......and something I've been trying to gets for ages.  A magnificent long-tailed widow-bird doing his glorious display.

How are these for ag shames, a pair of white-throated swallows who have a nest inside one of the hides.  On a Natal Bird Experience that I was leading, a lady guest came up with the idea of deciding which bird you would choose to be if you were reincarnated.  I immediately had a vivid memory of a pair of these birds in the magical Msikaba Gorge on the Wild-coast.  Still can't imagine anything more perfect.

For a bird of a different stripe. O R Tambo Airport is just down the road and on my morning walks I've often seen this enormous lady coming into land.  The A380, which I shall be boarding in mid-July to visit friends and family in jolly old England.

Autumn is cosmos time and you tend to forget that they are classed as noxious weeds when you see whole fields of them.

There's an old quarry out Klipriviers (no it's not a typo that's an Afrikaans river!) way which I always stop at when out there on the bike.  It was absolutely chock full of birds the other day but they started to get twitchy as I approached.  Of the 3 duck species I only managed to get a shot of a red-billed teal........

............and a spur-winged goose - actually another duck.  These are big birds and when about a hundred of them took to the air it sounded like an airport.

Took a tootle out to Vaal Dam, which was spilling the last time I came but it has dropped a tad since.  

There were lots of white-breasted cormorants sunning themselves on rocks in the river which would indicate there are still fish about after the floods.

Downstream, the sun was reflected prettily where the water was disturbed by a rapid.

Carrying on around the dam which still covers an enormous area I came upon Vaal Marina which I assumed was a resort but it's actually a town spread out over many kilometres of shoreline.

A regional rarity has started popping up in various places , the one being Reitvlei Dam which I visited one morning but as I was going through the gate I realised that something was missing.  Binoculars and camera, still on the spare bed in my room!  Another attack of  "oldtimer's disease" and to make matters worse I couldn't find the bird.

A report came in of another appearance at Suikerbos NR, so off I went having carefully put the car keys on top of my backpack as a mental spur but still didn't manage to find the critters. There was interest in the form of mountain wheatears by the dozen, they feature black, white and grey plumage in a dizzying array, here mainly grey........

..............and here a bit of each.

Next a large herd of eland, at least 50 strong but not much else in the way of herbivores.

Three little Namaqua doves were a bit of a surprise this being the female who was being more or less continually harried by a pair of suitors, though she was far more interested in breakfast.

A small group of spike-heeled larks practically demanded an audience while chattering incessantly among themselves.

Only caught sight of this magnificent beast seconds before running it over, but managed to swerve in time.  Approaching on foot, I was only a metre away when I took this shot and assumed that it had been run over by someone else as it didn't budge.  But as I turned to go it came to it's senses and started to "walk" away on rippling ribs.  A puffadder in glorious technicolour of a newly shed skin.  It must have been dozing in the sunshine, but it's difficult to tell as they don't have eyelids!